


Would You Be So Kind

by soft_lester



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Diners, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-04-26 08:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14398629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soft_lester/pseuds/soft_lester
Summary: Dan is a university student. Phil is the son of the owner of a diner. An empty stomach is enough to bring them together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> the title is a reference to the song of the name name by dodie
> 
> I'm running on 4 hours of sleep at the moment so if there are any mistakes feel free to point them out to me! :)

University had been a huge shock to Dan in more ways than he had anticipated. It was more than just moving across the country and leaving behind his family and everything he knew. The second luxuries like readily available home-cooked meals were taken away from him was the second that he understood how alone he really would be from now on.

The day Dan stumbled across Lester’s Diner was the same day he set off a fire alarm in his hall trying to cook pasta. No one ever told him you were supposed to cook the pasta in water, so how would he have known? After that, Dan decided he ought to take a break from cooking for his own safety. Not to mention that he didn’t need to piss off the other people in his hall again. Once was more than enough. But that meant that Dan needed to find something else to eat. The stress and horror of burning the pasta wouldn’t be able to fill his empty stomach.

What drew Dan to Lester’s Diner more than any other restaurant in the whole of Manchester was that it was rather empty. He needed a break from the constant noise of university life, and this looked like just the place to find that peace.

The diner was a quaint place. It wasn’t the bright and flashy sort of diner Dan had always associated with American movies. This diner felt more welcoming and more homey than he would have expected. It was exactly what he needed that day. Something to make him feel a little less alone.

As soon as he walked in through the door, Dan could see into the kitchen. He stood a few feet away from the threshold and stuffed his hands into his pockets. At the same time, an older man peered his head out of the kitchen and yelled, “Phil, there’s a customer.” He must have been talking to the boy standing behind the counter: a boy who looked a little older than Dan, but not much older—not more than three of four years by the look of him. The boy had black hair that covered most of his face and almost reached his shoulders. His hair reminded Dan a lot of his own hair. But it seemed to suit him better than it suited Dan—he probably didn’t have to worry about straightening it constantly to prevent natural curls from resurfacing. Underneath the hair, Dan could see a pale face and stunning blue eyes. He was beautiful.

“Alright, Dad,” the boy called Phil said back in a thick Northern accent that was not unlike the older man’s accent. Then he grabbed a menu off the counter and walked over to where Dan was standing.

“Table for one, I’m assuming,” Phil said in a nonchalant voice as his eyes scanned Dan’s body. Dan couldn’t help but stare into Phil’s eyes; they were the same height so it was hard to look anywhere else. Phil’s eyes, which were a shimmering blue, glowed up close.

“Y-yes,” Dan forced out, running a hand through his hair in an attempt to let out some of the nervous energy welling up inside him. Why did he feel intimidated by Phil? He lowered his eyes a bit to see that the other man had a name tag attached to his shirt that confirmed that his name was Phil.

“Alright,” Phil shrugged. He didn’t seem to be paying close attention to Dan. “Follow me.” He guided Dan to a small table in the corner of the diner. As Dan settled into the seat, Phil set the menu down on the table and said, “I’ll be back to take your order in a few minutes.” Then he headed back to the counter. There a worker from the kitchen peered out of the kitchen door and handed him a plate of food for another patron. They exchanged a few words before Phil walked back out to the main floor of the diner with the plate in one hand.

Dan skimmed through the menu, searching to see if anything caught his attention, but he found himself peeking up from the menu to spy on Phil. Now he was talking to a couple who appeared to have just walked in through the door. Phil looked indifferent on the surface, but there was still something enticing about watching him absorbed in his work.

Not wanting Phil to notice that he had been spying on him, Dan’s eyes darted back down to the menu as soon as he saw Phil turn around to lead the couple to a table. He kept reading the words on the menu over and over again without thinking about what they meant. The words went in one ear and out the other. They were meaningless. The names of foods seemed so unimportant in comparison to the other thought festering in Dan’s mind.

“So what’ll you have?” The voice made Dan jump. His cheeks turned red when he looked up and saw Phil standing over him. How long had he been sitting here? It only felt like seconds, but for all he knew it could have been hours.

“Uh, can I have a few more minutes to decide?” Dan asked, trying not to fearfully stutter over the words.

Phil nodded. “Of course.” As soon as Phil walked away and Dan was alone in the corner of the diner again, he cursed at himself for acting so awkward in front of Phil. He didn’t believe in love at first sight—he was a cynical guy who was not quick to believe in phenomena that lacked definitive, scientific evidence to confirm its existence—but he couldn’t help but admit that there was something special about Phil that he couldn’t shake.

After he read through the whole menu the third time he decided that there was no point in trying yet another time to pick something out. He would just order a cup of coffee and hope that would be enough to hold him over all night while he tried to finish his law paper that was due the following morning.

When Phil came back to Dan’s table in the corner, Dan felt more prepared this time.

“I’ll just have a cup of coffee,” Dan said. _If that’s alright_ , he found himself adding in his head. To his relief he managed to refrain from saying it out loud; he did not want to come off as any more awkward or nervous than he already was.

Dan assumed that Phil could remember “a cup of coffee” easily enough, but Phil still wrote the order down anyway. “I’ll have that ready in just a minute,” he said, hardly looking up from his notepad.

Dan smiled at Phil before he took the menu off the table and walked away. Phil didn’t smile back, nor did he even meet Dan’s eyes. He looked too absorbed in his own work to pay close attention to Dan at all.

There was a coffee-maker already set up behind the counter so Phil didn’t have to go into the kitchen to make coffee; Dan could watch him make the coffee. Next to it was a stack of generic white mugs. Phil grabbed the mug off the top of the pile and poured some of the already-made coffee into it. Phil’s hands were so large it looked as if he could crush the mug if he wanted to—not that Phil struck Dan as the type of guy who needlessly crushed mugs. Massive though his hands were they were also shaky and Dan could see from even a distance that his hands shook as he tried to aim the coffee into the mug. Mesmerized by the sight, Dan watched Phil from his seat and hoped that he wouldn’t spill any of the coffee on his hands.

Once Phil finished pouring the coffee, he set the mug aside from the other mugs and returned the coffee pot back to its spot in the coffee-maker. With both hands, he picked up the coffee-filled mug and headed to Dan’s corner of the diner.

“There you are,” Phil said as he cautiously set the mug down in front of Dan. Once the mug was out of his hands he backed away a little bit as if giving Dan room for him to be comfortable.

“Thank you,” Dan said, smiling at Phil. This time Phil gave a small smile back before he hurried to the table next to Dan’s, where the couple was waiting to order. Dan brought the coffee cup to his lips and watched Phil, captivated by the sight of this man so engrossed in his work, even while appearing seemingly disinterested in what he was doing. Even when he furrowed his brows in deep concentration, he looked beautiful.

Even as thought after thought consumed Dan, he couldn’t figure out why he was so suddenly and intensely infatuated with this man. With this _stranger_.

Dan ended up leaving Lester’s Diner still hungry that day, but he knew that it wouldn’t be long before he returned again.


	2. Chapter 2

Dan took walk after walk through Manchester over the next several days. It was for “the fresh air,” he told himself time and time again, hoping that if he repeated it enough times then maybe—just maybe—he would start believing it. On each of these walks, he found himself passing by Lester’s Diner and peering in through the front windows to catch a glimpse of how busy it was at different times of day. To Dan’s surprise, it was packed more often than not. And sometimes he could see Phil dashing back and forth across the diner in an attempt to keep up with the quick pace and demands of his work.

The next time Dan actually stepped inside Lester’s Diner was an early Tuesday morning, right when the diner opened. Surely there wouldn’t be a lot of people at the diner then. Forcing himself out of bed to walk across the city this early in the morning was a challenge—he wasn’t a morning person at all, and waking up before noon was a miracle on its own—but the thought of seeing Phil again seemed to be enough motivation alone.

When Dan walked in through the door, his eyes scanned the vicinity in search of Phil. He found Phil standing behind the counter, his hand holding his head up and his elbow resting on the tabletop. It looked like Phil wasn’t a morning person, either. Something they had in common. Phil’s eyes met Dan’s from across the diner. The sight of Dan appeared to liven up Phil, though. Only seconds passed before Phil picked himself up and headed to the door to greet Dan.

“Welcome back,” Phil said. His voice sounded a little raspier than it had the last time Dan heard him speak, but Dan wasn’t sure if he was imagining the difference in his voice. Not that it mattered. It was nice to hear Phil’s voice again at all, raspy or not raspy.

“Table for one,” Dan cut in before Phil had a chance to ask this time. He wanted to come off as more confident this time. He wanted to make a stronger, more lasting impression on Phil.

“I assumed so,” Phil said in a lighthearted voice. Dan would have assumed that Phil was mocking him if it weren’t for the smile Phil shot at him. Still grinning, Phil led Dan to the same table in the corner that he had sat at the last time he was there.

Phil set a menu down on the table as Dan slid into the chair. “I suggest you read through that this time,” Phil said, a smirk blending in with his persistent smile. Dan couldn’t help but notice that Phil had a gorgeous smile. “I think you might find something you like in there.”

Dan smiled back, trying to appear calm on the outside, even though it felt like a storm was building up inside of him, waiting for the inevitable explosion.

His heart racing, Dan lowered his eyes and looked through the menu. This time he slowed down and took his time to make sure he soaked in every word of it. He decided he would try the pancakes—pancakes seemed simple enough and, more importantly, they were cheap.

When Phil returned to Dan’s table in the corner, Dan repeated his order to Phil. He sat up straighter and looked directly into Phil’s eyes—those breathtaking, icy blue eyes that Dan couldn’t resist—as he spoke.

Phil scribbled the order down on a small notepad and then his blue eyes shot back up and saw that Dan was still watching him intently. Though his eyes seemed a little hesitant, Phil smiled again as he said, “I’ll have that ready as soon as possible.”

Dan grinned at Phil, but he didn’t have a chance to say anything because Phil grabbed the menu off the table and dashed back to the counter. He ducked into the kitchen to pass on Dan’s order. Why did Dan think he seemed more rushed this time than before? It wasn’t busy, so it wasn’t like he had to hurry to help another customer.

While waiting, Dan didn’t know what to do but watch Phil as he dashed around the diner, delivering food to one table, a check to another table, and leading people to sit down at empty tables too. Now he was moving slower than he had after taking Dan’s order. He seemed so in control of his work. It wasn’t busy—at least not yet—so he wasn’t dashing about in a frantic daze, giving Dan a chance to observe the way Phil naturally carried himself. His legs were long and slim to match his pale, thin arms. As Dan looked closer, he saw that Phil’s arms were covered with small, delicate freckles. Dan loved freckles. And freckles were another thing to love about Phil.

After Phil ran around the diner a few times, he headed to Dan’s table carrying a stack of pancakes.

“There you go,” Phil said, his voice trailing off as he set the plate down on the table.

“Dan.”

“Dan,” Phil said in a quiet voice, hardly louder than a whisper. “If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.” He smiled and his shoulders appeared to drop. Was he _nervous_? Dan wished he could read Phil’s mind and figure out what he was thinking and how he was feeling. That would make _everything_ so much easier.

Dan picked up his utensils and dug into the pancakes as soon as Phil was out of sight. They were delicious. Not that this came as a surprise to Dan—they were pancakes, so how could they be bad?

Dan devoured the stack of pancakes within minutes. It was the most satisfying meal he had eaten in a while. Compared to his own cooking, this was a luxurious, gourmet meal. He hadn’t had any major disasters since the pasta incident, but his cooking was still lackluster.

Once he finished eating Dan continued to watch Phil while he waited for Phil to bring the bill. Hardly a minute passed before Phil saw that Dan was watching him from the corner. It was when he dashed back to the counter after delivering food to another customer. He paused behind the counter for a short moment before he walked over to Dan’s table.

“I’ll bring out the bill for you in just a minute,” Phil said. Dan watched Phil’s every cautious movement as he gathered the dirty dishes, brought them to the kitchen, and then headed to the cash register at the counter to prepare Dan’s bill.

When Phil returned moments later and slid the bill onto the table, his glittering blue eyes met Dan’s. Though Phil broke eye contact within a second, it was a magical moment for Dan, one that made his head feel lighter and his heart patter faster. Phil had a tint of enthusiastic glow in his eyes, no matter how reluctant he was to reveal it to Dan.

***

Dan had trouble falling asleep that night. No matter how much he tossed and turned, his mind kept floating away to thoughts about Phil, thoughts that were tempting enough to keep away the allure of sleep. Dan knew that he needed to go back to the diner again the next day.

He sat up and set his alarm so he would wake up early the next morning. He wanted to get to Lester’s Diner as soon as it opened again. Just the thought of getting up early again filled Dan with dread, but he would suffer through it all over again for Phil. He needed to see Phil again.


	3. Chapter 3

Dan didn’t know how he managed to sleep through his alarm the next morning—the one time he _wanted_ to wake up early. By the time he rolled out of bed and checked the time, more than two hours had passed since his alarm went off. Two _hours_. He had overslept for more than two hours. Lester’s Diner had opened an hour ago—or was it an hour and a half? Dan couldn’t remember the exact time over the throbbing of his head.

Panicking, Dan forced himself out of bed and rushed to get dressed and get ready as fast as he could, not paying careful attention to what he was doing. All the while, he cursed himself for not being more careful and setting multiple alarms. Once he was ready, he checked the time again to see that he was late for his morning class, anyway, so there was no point in showing up to that late. He might as well spend this time going to see Phil rather than dash across campus and humiliate himself in front of his professor and peers by showing up halfway through lecture.

Dan stuffed his hands into the pockets of his black jeans as he walked across the city to Lester’s Diner. It was a cold morning and the air was nippy, the wind blowing onto Dan’s face. He stiffened in an attempt to retain what little warmth he had. He wished he could have just stayed inside, rather than trudge through the cold and wind, but he wanted to see Phil. He was determined to see Phil _today_ , no matter how low the temperature outside was.

Lester’s Diner turned out to be packed by the time Dan arrived. It wasn’t overflowing with people by any means, but for a small diner there was no doubt that it was busy. Dan was not the only person in line waiting to be seated at a table. He was the last person in a line of at least five people, but it felt like more. It was so crowded that he could barely see Phil running around, trying to keep up with the chaos. He only spotted Phil a few times when he came toward the front of the diner to greet and seat the customers waiting in line. Even though he was far away, Dan tried to meet Phil’s eyes every time he passed by. But it seemed that Phil was too busy to notice Dan waiting in the line.

Several idle minutes passed before Dan finally made it to the front of the line. From there, he had a better view of Phil dashing from table to table, taking orders, handing out plates of food, taking away dirty dishes, and giving people their bills. He made several trips to and from the kitchen before he finally had a free moment to greet Dan.

“Oh, it’s you again,” Phil said, laughing as he made eye contact with Dan. Phil’s shoulders had appeared stiff at first, but Dan noticed they lowered and seemed to loosen when he laughed. It was as if Dan’s presence reassured Phil and calmed him in the middle of a busy work day.

“Follow me,” Phil said, leading Dan to the only empty table in the entire restaurant. Dan was disappointed because it wasn’t his usual table in the corner by the kitchen. The table where he could watch Phil run in and out of the kitchen as he worked. This table, meanwhile, was on the other side of the diner, away from the door into the kitchen.

Dan sat down in the chair and Phil ran away a second after setting down the menu, but Dan didn’t blame him. He watched Phil and saw that the other man was running straight to the kitchen. It was hard to see the details of Phil’s face from this distance, though. All he could see was his pale face and his contrasting dark hair. In both of his hands were piles of food. The sight made Dan’s stomach grumble, reminding him why he came to the diner in the first place. _One_ reason why he came, at least.

Opening the menu, Dan scanned through all of the options to see what caught his attention, though he considered ordering pancakes again because he craved something comforting. Something familiar. And pancakes fit the bill.

Phil returned to Dan’s table a minute later after taking another customer’s order and giving it to the workers in the kitchen. “Is there a drink I can get you started with?” Phil asked, his light eyes glowing. Dan wished that the noise and business of their surroundings would just disappear, leaving them alone in silence and peace to enjoy the other person’s company.

It took Dan a second to snap himself out of his fantasy and return to reality. Phil was real and he was here, standing right in front of him. “Er, I’ll have a cup of coffee,” Dan said in the calmest voice he could muster. He could feel the temperature of his cheeks rise with each passing second.

Phil nodded. “Alright. I’ll have that ready for you in just a minute, Dan.” Then he walked away and Dan smiled to himself, bursting with happiness to know that Phil had remembered his name. He _had_ just told Phil his name the day before, but Dan still found it comforting to know that he was more than a forgettable afterthought to Phil.

Before Dan knew it Phil had returned to the table with a mug in his hands.

“There you go, Dan,” Phil said as he set the mug down on the table. “Are you ready to order now?”

Dan nodded and proceeded to give his order to Phil, who wrote it down as fast as possible before saying, “I’ll have that ready as soon as possible.” Then he dashed away, leaving Dan alone to pass the time by himself as he waited for his food. Even though it was harder to watch Phil from this table, he still found himself watching Phil absorbed in his work as best as he could.

Several minutes passed before Phil returned to Dan’s table with a massive stack of pancakes. After exchanging a smile, Phil walked away and Dan dug into the pancakes. As expected, they tasted amazing. Again.

_It was definitely worth missing class for this_ , Dan thought as he forked another bite into his mouth. As he ate, he continued to watch Phil run back and forth around the diner. It was less crowded now—most of the people who had been eating when Dan arrived were gone—so it was a lot less chaotic and noisy than it had been before. Phil still ran around the diner, but he did not look as overwhelmed now as he had looked earlier. Dan let out a sigh of relief, grateful that everything was a little more quiet now.

When Dan finished his pancakes, he looked up and saw that Phil was delivering food to another table. Though Phil was occupied with other customers, he still found a chance to shoot a glance to Dan while he was walking so he knew that Dan was finished and ready to pay for his meal. After Phil set the food down on the other table—Dan noticed that his shaky hands moved slowly as if he were trying to keep the food balanced on the plate and stop it from falling onto the floor—he moved to Dan’s table. Picking up the dirty dishes, Phil asked, “Did you find everything alright today?”

“Yes,” Dan said, his eyes trailing down to Phil’s name tag on his shirt, “Phil.” He had known Phil’s name ever since his first visit to the diner, but this was the first time he said his name out loud.

Phil smiled—there was something comforting and reassuring about this smile, something that filled Dan with a glow of warmth—as he scooped up Dan’s plate with one hand and scurried across the diner to the kitchen. Dan’s eyes were fixated on the man’s cautious but smooth movements. He watched as Phil slipped in through the kitchen’s door and then back out a short moment later. He watched Phil stand behind the counter preparing his check. It was just a receipt, something that a machine could print out in a matter of seconds, but Phil was looking for a pen and, once he found one, he started scribbling something. Dan furrowed his brows, wondering what he was doing. It was just a receipt. Wasn’t it?

Phil returned with the bill a minute later and he slipped it onto the table. He hesitated before walking away, and his eyes rose from the tabletop to sneak a glimpse at Dan’s face before he left, heading straight to a nearby table. Dan watched Phil and, though he couldn’t hear what the other man was saying, he assumed that Phil was asking the customers how they were enjoying their food. He could tell just from the way he stood. From the curious and caring look on his face.

When Dan glanced at his bill, he didn’t expect to see anything out of the ordinary. He had ordered the exact same thing as he had the day before, so he expected to see the same prices he had already paid once before. He hadn’t expected to see a number scrawled in slanted but still legible handwriting at the bottom of the paper. Upon closer inspection, Dan saw that it was actually a separate piece of paper buried under the bill, hiding in plain sight. It must have been Phil’s number. In that moment Dan felt as if his heart was about to explode. It began to beat faster. Faster. Faster. Faster. It felt like it had swollen, taking up too much space in his chest. He felt his cheeks start to visibly redden as he lifted his head, scanning the diner trying to look for the tall, lean, black-haired man. Dan found him standing behind the counter, his eyes fixed on Dan and making no attempt to hide it. When he saw that Dan was looking at him, he grinned widely. Dan could tell that he was satisfied with what he had done.

Not knowing how to react—his insides were still jumping about in a frenzy as he tried to make sense of the whole situation—Dan gave a sheepish smile back and then pulled his wallet out of his pocket and dug out his credit card. He set the credit card on top of the bill and then pulled the paper with Phil’s number out of the pile. He stuffed that paper into his wallet, right in the fold where he wouldn’t forget about it. As he struggled to fit the paper in his wallet without crumpling it, he looked up and saw that Phil was already returning to his table. _To pick up the bill_ , he reminded himself, trying to keep his breathing as steady as possible.

When Phil returned to pick up the bill and Dan’s card, he shot a smile at Dan. However, he did not stay long enough to strike any conversation. Still, though, he knew what he did and he seemed proud of it. Dan kept his eyes on him as he moved toward the cash register behind the counter and slid Dan’s credit card through the machine. Within a minute he was walking back to Dan’s table.

“Thanks for stopping by, Dan,” Phil said, “and I expect to hear from you soon.”

Dan’s eyes widened and he smiled at Phil. “Don’t worry about that.” He felt his cheeks start to redden, but he didn’t care this time.

Dan stood up from the table and Phil smiled back. “I have to go help another customer now, but…” His voice faded away, but he didn’t need to finish the sentence. He gave a small wave to Dan before he walked away and Dan waved back, his wide grin still plastered to his face.

Even when he was outside Dan couldn’t stop smiling. The whole walk home was a euphoric experience. He was beaming, still in shock that what had happened _actually_ happened. Phil had given him _his number_. And he wanted to hear from Dan. He actually wanted to. Dan’s feelings weren’t a one-sided thing after all.

Minutes passed before Dan returned to his hall. Once he was back in his private room, he leapt onto his head and excitedly pulled out his wallet and fished for the scrap of paper Phil had written his number on. Then he pulled out his phone and typed up a text to Phil’s number as fast as he could.

**Dan**

_Do you want to get dinner sometime?_

The response came seconds later.

**Phil**

_Yes of course :D anywhere that isn’t Lester’s Diner though please!! I want to try something different that’s not pancakes ;)_

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! follow me on twitter @philspuns!


End file.
